CRICKET: WARWICKSHIRE suffered two Royal London Cup losses in three days, losing out narrowly to both Lancashire and Nottinghamshire.
It was Bears’ fourth loss in the tournament on the spin after initially winning their opening game against Northamptonshire at the end of April.
Jim Troughton’s side first faced Nottinghamshire where a maiden limited-overs century from Billy Root helped the Outlaws secure a precious ten-run win at Edgbaston.
The Outlaws made a strong 303/6 from their 50 overs thanks to Root’s unbeaten 107 from 93 balls and Steven Mullaney’s 89 from just 84 balls.
In reply, Jonathon Trott continued his prolific 50-over form with his 21st limited-overs century by scoring 104 from 108 balls.
But the chase proved beyond his colleagues as Bears fell short on 293/9.
Warwickshire suffered a similar loss on Sunday against a strong Lancashire side who again posted a significant opening innings total.
Put in to bat, Lancashire lost Alex Davies, lbw to Rikki Clarke, in the eighth over but were given a brisk start by Karl Brown (37, 41 balls) before he edged Olly Hannon-Dalby to the wicketkeeper.
Haseeb Hameed (46, 59 balls) and Liam Livingstone (27, 31 balls) added 54 in 12 overs but after Livingstone nicked Clarke and Hameed swept Ateeq Javid to short fine-leg, Lancashire were a wobbly 130 for four.
The Red Rose was fortified by a stand of 103 in 87 balls between Croft and Dane Vilas (55, 47 balls).
Then, after Vilas lapped Javid to short fine-leg, Croft hit overdrive.
The skipper and Jordan Clark added 114 from 56 balls – a thunderous assault which included a remarkable 35 from the 45th over, delivered by Hannon-Dalby.
Of the over’s ten balls, four were lifted over the boundary-rope with one, from a no-ball, scoring eight.
Lancashire ended their innings on 351/8.
Bears started their innings poorly, losing Trott and Bell cheaply.
Sam Hain and Matt Lamb were next to depart as Warwickshire soon found themselves at 95/4.
Tim Ambrose (68, 71 balls) and Clarke (76, 48 balls) kept Warwickshire in the game with a stand of 126, but both perished in the space of eight balls.
Clarke charged at Simon Kerrigan and missed and after the in-form Ambrose was beaten by Anderson’s direct hit, a target of 124 from the last 15 overs proved too much for the lower order.
Warwickshire first-team coach Jim Troughton said: “It’s another loss and a difficult one to take.
“It really came down to a couple of overs with the short boundary which turned the game on its head.
“The guys are big enough and experienced enough to accept that that’s where the game’s gone.
“We did so much right in the game but are just not putting the final pieces into place at the moment.”
